Curry's lack of 'Alabama ties' led to short stint

By Cecil HurtSports Editor

Monday

Jul 26, 2010 at 12:01 AM

Looking back, Bill Curry is able to view his time at the University of Alabama as just another brick in the wall.

The University of Alabama football program was one of the most dominant in the nation in the 1960s and '70s under head coach Paul W. "Bear" Bryant. With last year's national championship, the Crimson Tide has returned to dominance under current coach Nick Saban. In between, Alabama football had a lot of ups and downs. This series will track the tenure of each UA coach who came between Bryant and Saban.

Looking back, Bill Curry is able to view his time at the University of Alabama as just another brick in the wall.No, not the infamous projectile that, in some versions, broke Curry's office window after the Crimson Tide's homecoming loss to Ole Miss in 1988. That story, and a hundred other anecdotes, typify Curry's contentious three-year tenure as the successor to Ray Perkins, a span that started in 1987 and ended in 1989. If Curry said there was a brick — and he said he doesn't reflect on those particular incidents any more — some people said there wasn't. If Curry said the sun would rise in the East, some people would look West. But Curry, now the head coach at Georgia State University in his hometown of Atlanta, says he doesn't regret his time in Tuscaloosa.“I think about Alabama a lot,” Curry says. “It isn't an experience I try to forget. Just the opposite. I learned so much when I was there.“And the one thing I want people in Alabama to know is that I loved walking that sideline. I always appreciated what it meant. And I loved it.”In some ways, the sideline was probably a refuge for Curry. He spent three years trying to please a fan base and booster culture that was hardly disposed favorably to accept him. Surprise choiceHe came from Georgia Tech with the idea that he was going to be “something different for Alabama football,” and there were many people who did not want something different. And while his critics harped on everything that Curry did, from discipline to attire, they always came back to one point: He couldn't beat Auburn.“It wasn't like we sucked,” said Roger Shultz, an All-Southeastern Conference center who played for Curry for three seasons. “We had some very competitive, very tough football teams. We won some big games. We always had a chance at the SEC championship in November. But it always came back to losing to Auburn.”Curry was a surprise choice for the Alabama job after Perkins left following the 1986 season, and he was never completely accepted after that.“Coach Curry came with some very strong recommendations from a wide range of people,” said Joab Thomas, who was UA's president at that time.“He did a wonderful job in the interviews,” added Thomas, now retired from academic life after a tenure as the president of Penn State. “I was impressed with him, and so were a lot of other people.”Even the hiring process itself fell under scrutiny. Thomas followed an unusual procedure in which a search committee was appointed and the committee members interviewed the candidates, including Curry and Florida State head coach Bobby Bowden.The committee was widely viewed as a rubber stamp for Thomas, though he denies that.“I relied very strongly on the recommendation of the search committee,” he said.Still, the decision did ultimately rest with Thomas, who had specific criteria in mind.“I wanted to have a clean program,” he said. “I did not want to have any threat of (NCAA) rules violations. But I wanted a strong program. I wanted to win. That was the essence of it.”Thomas dismisses charges that he wanted to diminish football's importance in the post-Bryant era.“That was never a thought that entered my mind,” he said.“Joab Thomas had a vision for a great academic and athletic situation,” Curry said. “I never evaluated Alabama as an academic entity, though, except for how it affected our guys in terms of getting a quality education. That wasn't my job. That was Dr. Thomas' job. I was the football coach. But he did present an ideal situation of both, and I bought into what he was presenting.“A lot of the changes that were important at Alabama were in place before I ever got there. And a great many people recognized that.“I knew what the job was. I certainly didn't have the illusion that I was going to build a football tradition at Alabama. That was already there.”Rough begninningsCurry's first team started off with two wins, but lost to Florida in his third game when the Gators started a freshman running back named Emmitt Smith for the first time. It was not auspicious timing for Curry – Smith rushed for 224 yards on 39 carries and scored two touchdowns. While it was evident that Smith was a rare talent, those were not the kind of numbers that a freshman was supposed to compile against an Alabama defense.Things got worse two weeks later when Alabama went on the road and lost to Memphis. The Crimson Tide then won three straight SEC games, including victories over Tennessee and LSU, but closed the year with three straight losses against the worst set of opponents Curry could have chosen: Notre Dame, Auburn and Michigan.Things improved somewhat in 1988, but controversy remained. For instance, Curry was deeply criticized for a decision to postpone a game at Texas A&M when it appeared that UA's travel plans might be impacted by Hurricane Gilbert. The storm took another path and Texas A&M head coach Jackie Sherrill (a former Alabama player under Paul W. “Bear” Bryant and an aspirant to the job which Curry had been given in 1987, which only added fuel to the drama) was vehemently critical.Curry only says that “based on the information we had, I would make the exact same decision today.”The homecoming loss to Ole Miss, and the allegations that a brick (or rock) had broken Curry's window – “that's been discussed enough,” Curry said – made things worse. Yet, Alabama managed to take a 7-1 record into its game with LSU, only to see frustration mount once more. UA led the game 15-0, but could not hold on and lost 19-18 as Philip Doyle's 54-yard field goal fell short as time expired. The Crimson Tide also lost to Auburn, and even wins over Texas A&M (which was rescheduled) and Army didn't soothe the UA fan base.Change in directionBut the biggest development for Curry came off the field. Thomas, the president who had hired him, and Steve Sloan, the athletic director with whom he had worked, were both gone by the end of 1988, replaced by new president Roger Sayers and Cecil “Hootie” Ingram, who took over as athletics director.“It did affect me,” Curry said of the changes. “Their personalities were different. I was working for other individuals now. Those other individuals were fine people, but it became obvious that some of the things that had been contemplated were not going to be the same way going forward.”Ironically, Curry had his best season in 1989. With an offense that exploded when Gary Hollingsworth took over as quarterback after Jeff Dunn was injured (Curry, as usual, was criticized for not playing Hollingsworth sooner), UA started the season 10-0 and was in a position to play for a national championship. But, once again, Alabama could not get past Auburn, losing 30-20.And the controversy surrounding Curry raged on.“At that point, it was obvious to me that (the situation) was becoming part of the problem,” he said. “By that, I mean that it was becoming a distraction for the players. They were having to answer questions about it all the time.”Word was circulating that Curry was growing more and more frustrated, particularly since he could not agree on the wording of a possible contract extension. So when C.M. Newton, the athletic director at Kentucky, called for permission to speak with Curry, Ingram granted it – and Curry listened.Shultz said it was probably for the best.“I don't think it was really a distraction to us,” he said. “I mean it was the only thing we knew. It was our life. But you do get tired of having to defend your coach all the time. It's tough.“I still have to do it today. I like Coach Curry. He was a great guy. He was one of the first head coaches to take the CEO approach and let his assistants do a lot of the coaching, but he had a lot of great assistant coaches, at least the ones I worked with on the offense.“He wasn't perfect, but we weren't that bad. And I think he has learned a lot and will be a better coach because of it at Georgia State.”Thomas said he was “disappointed,” not in Curry's departure, but in the way that departure played out.“I was disappointed primarily in some of the treatment that he got from some of the fans, although he kept his cool about it,” Thomas said. “Overall, his success (rate) was not that bad, especially given the circumstances. I thought he did a very good job in the face of some intense opposition.”Moving forwardFor his part, Curry admits that Alabama had its difficulties and that he “made some mistakes, which all coaches do.”“Some of the criticism was legitimate,” he said. “And I learned that people who are making legitimate criticisms are only trying to make you better. And the irrational people, well, you learn that they are not speaking from logic.“Alabama was definitely a great place in many ways. There is such a year-round emphasis on football there, but I love football so that didn't bother me. To me, that was a positive.“I also learned lessons about loyalty while I was there. So many people were fiercely loyal to me. Rev. (Sylvester) Croom was one. Joe Namath and Ken Stabler were guys who went out of their way to help me in whatever I did. There are so many more that I don't have time to name right now.“There were negative people, too, and you could choose to say negative things about them. But you finally learn – for me, it was at about age 60 – that you listen to the honest critics and learn from them and that is all you can control.“The other criticism won't damage you unless you digest it. Then it is like battery acid, if you swallow. You either spew it back at the people around you, which isn't good, or it eats out your insides, which isn't good, either.“So I try to take the things that were positive at Alabama and use them to coach football and help youth. That's what I do. When you are at a place and you see ordinary players go out and play like Superman just because they put on that Alabama jersey, that makes an impression on you. And we had some great players, don't get me wrong, but we also had a lot of players who played better than they were just because it was Alabama.“That's what I am trying to instill here at Georgia State. I know how far away we are from that. But it's a chance here to be at the beginning of something that could be like that someday.“It was a privilege to be around something like that. That's what I hope to take from my years at Alabama.”

Reach Cecil Hurt at cecil.hurt@tuscaloosanews.com or at 205-722-0225.

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